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Cut and paste on the Reds 40-man ...

http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/team
/roster_40man.jsp?c_id=cin

Actually, the only good way of doing that cut is to make a trade. I'd say Lutz or Soto could be on the block. Neither is going to make this team at first base.

There are a lot of pitchers on the 40-man, and I would guess some of them are there to fill in the spaces in the off-chance Olivo or Izturis does do well enough to make the Reds.

As well, a few teams might be looking for pitching help.  

Actually, the only good way of doing that cut is to make a trade. I'd say Lutz or Soto could be on the block. Neither is going to make this team at first base.

There's talk of trying Soto at 3B again.  He's played there earlier in the minors and they've considered trying him there again.

As for Lutz, I thought I heard something about left field.  He couldn't be worse than Donkey, Gomes or Ludwick, could he?

Not saying they're on the block, but I also know that they're not limited solely to 1B.  And besides, I also think that within 2-5 years, we'll see the DH in the National League full time.

we'll see the DH in the National League full time.

Geez, Buck, are you TRYING to kill me ?

Why not change the walk to 3 balls, the pitching rubber to 70 feet ferom the plate, and bring the fences in 50 feet ? That would accomplish the same things (more runs) at the expense of pitching, defense and of course, would further negate the need for a manager that can actually manage the game that baseball has been for about 100 of the last 120 years.

What was the purpose for the DH anyway ?

If they want to speed the game up, I don't see how more 12-8 scores and less 2-1 scores accomplishes that.

If they wanted to add more exitement, I suppose it's personal preference to which you would rather see, a pitcher's spot that hits
 .150, and strikes out 170 times a season trying to get 40 sac bunts down to put a RISP, or a fat guy that hits .250, and strikes out 170 times a year trying to hit 20 homers.

If they wanted more homers, and fewer bunts, I thought that's what they came up with harder baseballs, shorter fences, less hilly mounds, and smaller strikezones for...not to mention, PED's.

Managers that use 4 relievers in every game playing matchups, but never bunt, hit and run or steal, couldn't be much speedier or exiting than a manager that knows how to make 5 baserunners and 2 double plays stand up for a win...

I'd rather make the players stop stepping out of the box to undress, re-dress, cross themselves and thank the Lord after every pitch instead, allow pitchers to administer a few purpose pitches (as long as they took their turn at the plate too), and leave the game intact.

Football fans aren't going to switch to baseball, but the seasons only overlap for 2 months anyway. Baseball fans aren't going to leave baseball, well...unless it stops being baseball...which is what they are trying to do. Ask Coke what happened when they got bored with their century old successful product and tried to make it like their competitiors...they lost their azz and had to backpedal. 

Being the avowed equal opportunity capitalist I am, I'd also like to see them cut more old, overpaid, overweight, uncoordinated steroidal DH's and hire a few more MLB minimum salaried kids that can actually run, catch and throw, too. Get more taxpayers into a higher bracket, reduce the ticket price, AND play a more athletic type of game, you know ? 


 

we'll see the DH in the National League full time.

Geez, Buck, are you TRYING to kill me ?

Didn't say I wanted that - because I 100% don't - but rather I think it will happen.

Personally, if you can't use a glove, you shouldn't be playing baseball. 

And tell me how fair is it?  First, when AL teams play at an NL team's park, you're asking the AL team to sit one of their regular players.  And on the flip side, you're forcing an NL team to insert a bench player into the lineup.

Can you imagine if, in the NFL, you said that AFC teams had to play a 3-4 defense and NFC teams had to play a 4-3, and that in cross-division games, you used the rules from the home team's conference?

How about letting NBA East teams play zone and West teams play man defense.  Or East has the 3 point shot but the West doesn't?

This is kind of the same thing.  The rule makers will ruin it for those of us who like "real" baseball and force upon us their stupid rule. 

I don't know if Lutz or Soto can hit MLB pitching better than current LF options... If and WHEN they can, they can play LF in a small park...for sure.

You know why ?

Leftfielders win Gold Gloves about as often as closers win MVPs....RARELY.

LF is a position best defended by a BAT.

A LF doesn't have to be fast, or have a good arm. He doesn't even have to field a hot groundball or participate in a pickoff or rundown (making him FAR less defensively important than even a 1st baseman).

If he can catch a fly ball hit within 15 feet of where he's standing, and retrieve a ball on a couple of hops off the grass and throw ( on a couple of hops) to a SS less than 100 feet from him, he can play LF.

If he's a .220 hitter without power or speed, I don't care if he is the best defensive LF in MLB, he can't take away more than dozen runs a year over the average LF in an entire season...which is by definition, a well below average MLB fielder...and he can't beat the net runs produced by a .250 hitter with 25 HR that makes a dozen errors in LF... Mathmatical impossibility. 

90% of the time, Left fielders are Leftfielders because they can't outhit the DH or 1b, and they can't play better defense than ANY of the other position players at those positions. If they were better outfielders, they'd play CF or RF.

A LF just HAS to hit, or he's worthless.

I think the discussion about the DH is as circular as politics, but the fact is, I would not be surprised to see the NL cave in. As the interleague schedule gets more complex, teams will be looking at the sabrmetrics of not having the DH and will conclude that it's worth it to have the DH. Like it or don't, that's what's coming. Buck is right about that.

But back to the DH, if a team learns to use it properly, it can be of value in a hitter's park. I don't think Dusty would use it properly, though. I assume he's against the DH on a personal level. An effective DH for the Reds would be somebody who could get to second base. Baserunners in GABP are as good as gold. Lots of baserunners.

 

And for Soto and Lutz, yeah, left field seems a place ... but as Marty pointed out, there are only so many left fielders you can have.

I am not sure the Reds won't sign Choo anyway and move him to LF when Hamilton comes up. At worst, Hamilton can't hit and will be part of a trade himself.

I think it bears repeating -- baseball teams build for 2-3 years down the road if they are SMART. The ones that just try to win now aren't really any more likely to do that than the Parrots or the Padres. It took Tampa 10 years to get there. A trade for Lutz or Soto is no crisis to me. There are 1,400 other guys out there who can play ball as well as either of these guys. A pitcher, however, or a guy who steals 155 bases ... a little harder to find.

Geez, Buck, are you TRYING to kill me ?

If it's any consolation, you shall not die alone, 1507. What a Pulitzer-worthy elaboration. Just freakin' awesome. 

An effective DH for the Reds would be somebody who could get to second base. Baserunners in GABP are as good as gold. Lots of baserunners.

To that end, johnU, maybe you guys will be as surprised as I was with a trend I spotted in baseball-reference.com. I use the site to analyze individual player trends for my fantasy baseball teams, but it has a wealth of great info on how an MLB team profiles statistically over time. (I recently discoved that the Cubs are likely to suck this season).

Although Busty has purportedly said that thefts do little but clog the basepaths, here are the Reds average number of stolen bases (per game) over the past four years:

2009: 0.55
2010: 0.56
2011: 0.65
2012: 0.67

Either the Toothpicked One is pulling one of his patented surprises on the rest of major league baseball, or he's forgetting his own preferred tactics. My money's on the memory deficit.

I would like this SB stat more if I saw who they were running against. 
The Parrots and AAAstros, for example, didn't throw anybody out all year. 
 

I don't know if Lutz or Soto can hit MLB pitching better than current LF options...

Neither do I - at least not yet.  These two guys aren't ready for prime time for sure.  They're both at least a year or two away.  And Soto is being looked at for 3B, a place where he played earlier in the minors.  From what I've heard, he's developed to where he can pick it pretty good at 1B, and he has an arm far better than required for 1B (one of the reasons Votto is at 1B is because he doesn't have a very good arm).  I read a scouting report on him on milb.com that even said he'd be OK in right field.

I believe the Reds had earmarked Soto as the 1B of the future had they not signed Votto.

Obviously that plan is on the back burner now. Looking around the league at infielders who go from third to first and vice versa, it's done more often than is rare (Cabrera in Detroit is one) ... but a guy playing 3B needs quickness on defense.

So if Soto has that, and he can hit, he will find a job in MLB. The guy in the way obviously is Frazier. So far, Frazier has proven to be able to hit MLB pitching. He isn't all that great on defense, though.

I still think the Reds are in a position of being able to make a trade for prospects, which would negate the loss of several in the Latos-Marshall trades. 



 

I'm not sure people are 100% sold on Frazier.  He was a good story last year, but what he did in the bigs was maybe a little unexpected.  We'll see how he handles the position in his first full season.  And if I'm Soto, I'd rather have Frazier (or Ludwick) in my way than Votto.

I still think the Reds are in a position of being able to make a trade for prospects, which would negate the loss of several in the Latos-Marshall trades. 

Agreed. More than a couple regulars at 1st or 3rd base have gone down recently with injuries. There is a need out there. 

1. Mark Teixeira -- The Yankees first baseman is likely out until at least May with a strained tendon in his wrist, the same injury that Jose Bautista tried to rest and rehab back to goodness, but ultimately delivered him to the surgical suite. Meanwhile, over at 3rd base, Youk is expected to hold things together till A-Rod is healthy, but that puts the Yankees' combined age at the IF corners over the century mark, Jeter is 38 and coming back from ankle surgery himself (limiting his ability to help out a third baseman with limited range), and the fact is you don't have to have great leather to be an asset. Brian Cashman has shown time and again an ability to limit his losses, IMO.

2. Toronto third baseman Brett Lawrie went down with a strained ribcage Wednesday, a notoriously tricky thing to play with or recover from. The Jays are built to win now. They could deal Bonifacio, Jose Reyes and a AAA lefty reliever for Soto, and still come out ahead on that trade they made with the Fish. Theo isn't taking my phone calls on this one, so I don't mind tipping off the enemy.

3. Corey is all Hart and no knee for the next couple of months after his surgery. The Brew Crew does have options, but they're all unproven. And meantime, Aramis Ramirez is now dealing with a balky knee over at third.

And it's just the first week of March.

I think the Cubs would be interested in an Ian Stewart/Vitters/Valbuena upgrade. I know I would be. Question is whether Soto is better than any of them.

I agree that Ramirez is on some borrowed time in Milwaukee and he has played much better than expected.

The problem is, I don't know who, if anybody, these teams have that they'd like to give up in a trade.

Currently, I don't see the Reds dealing with anybody in the NL-C, including the Cubs. But of course, a three-way deal could happen.

And we do need to be patient a bit. Votto has been known to miss some games.

As well, the Braves just traded in Chipper's number and have ... Juanderful Juan Francisco at the top of their depth chart. Chris Johnson is probably better.

Can Michael Young play 3B for the Fillies?

I suppose Toronto could stick E5 back at third base if he hits like he did last year, Vitamin S or not. Bonafacio looks like a guy who will be in the big leagues until he's 48, playing backup to everybody on the team.

With a team like the Yanks, they might try to simply buy the guy's contract and make no trade at all. Not knowing what the Yanksters have, seems they are going to have to move pretty quickly on the Teixiera thing.  A contract sale for cash only isn't always a bad thing, though I don't know if a AAA player commands much of a price tag.





 



 

Soto has to hit above .240 on the farm before I'm interested.. That said, Bryce Harper's mediocre minor league numbers didn't deter the Nats from delivering on his expedited trip to the front of the line to get to the big club... and in a half season sample size, they seem to be satisfied with his results. He was labeled a cant miss, poster boy in high school though, and unlike Soto, will have people make room for him. It WOULD be a good career move for Soto, Lutz, and other 1b Reds farm hopefuls to find another position, or hit so much they are better trade value.

Did you see the Mexico / Canada game ?

The Mexican's started a cockfight and the Canadians thought a hockey game broke out.  No wonder Mexico was getting beat-it took their pitcher 3 tries to intentionally hit a Canadian.  

Glad to see Votto didn't participate in the fighting...I expect he'll just send flowers and a thoughtful card, to the suspended guys.

There were only a handful of guys on both teams that could get into a MLB game without a ticket.

You know why Mexico doesn't have an Olympic team ?

Because everyone from Mexico that can run, jump or swim is in the USA.

Yeah, my first thought was to see the video and hope like hell that JV was grazing in the outfield. Turns out, he was pretty much to the rear of the crowd. 

 

I couldn't even imagine what would have happened if Votto would have gotten in that fight and been hurt. But this is the kind of crap that can happened in these games. I don't like them, What if Votto would have been hit with a pitch in the head or hand and injured. 

I don't think major league players should be playing in these games. All it takes is some over aggressive wantabe, who wants to get his 15 minutes of fame, Going into someones knee like Phillips at 2nd. and Phillips carreer is done.

I agree.



I understood the Olympic baseball curiosity, and didn't mind it when they were college and low level minor leaguers particiapting, but the WBC is largely spun by other countries as a David v. Goliath bravdo Nationalism propaganda technique...that frankly pits a chip-on-the-shoulder or desperate attempt at recognition by a MLB scout, against countries there on a whim or political pressure to particiapte for reasons other than baseball.

Sending Donald Lutz to the WBC sounds like better business than sending Joey Votto.

You think baseball is the next big thing in Italy, or Holland ? Maybe...if it is, there will be more Lutz's going there to play, than coming here, I think.   

MLB has been trying to expand it's product to foreign markets for about as long as there has been baseball, not as an export per se, but as a method to have another minor league stalent source without paying for it. Economics and world events have turned Japan from that concept, into a system that costs MLB teams $50 -$100 million for the right to sign a player to another $50-100 million contract.... MLB is NOW obviously paying deeply for that luxury...for now, all it cost MLB in Latin America is a baseball complex or two, a winter league sponsor, some factory seconds equipment and a few MLB contracted agents and scouts. That too, will change when those teams have enough funds in private hands to truly own franchises and players, the way non-3rd world countries do.

The first big-salary guy who gets hurt will put a stop to the WBC. Honestly, an international "minor league" would be all right and I'd probably go see the games if they were nearby. But baseball isn't going to get any better in Europe than it is.